Fire Margins

by Lisanne Norman

  Carrie! You were the one who persuaded me we needed this time as a break! There’s a lot I should be doing at the new estate.

  Don’t talk to me about the estate! You come back every day covered in dust and plaster. You’ll set into a statue one of these days! she warned.

  I just want everything to be right.

  I told you before, the builders know what they’re doing, and you’ve got Garras out there whenever Vanna’s at the lab. You don’t have to see to everything yourself.

  The worst’s over now, I promise. Another couple of days and they’ll be finishing off the house and the other main buildings. I don’t need to oversee their work on the estate homes. His mental tone was even more conciliatory now.

  She smiled to herself. She couldn’t stay angry with him for long, and he knew it.

  Mara I don’t mind, but her Leska? he sent.

  Zhyaf might choose not to come, she replied as she headed for the front of the house to put the spades in the aircar. Mara’s almost more isolated than I was, Kusac. I’m here, another human, and she’s been kept away from me. A break like this with us is what she needs, too.

  I’ll take your word for it, he sent with a mental sigh.

  *

  “I don’t know what you expect to find,” said Kusac, as they climbed into the aircar where the others were waiting for them. “There’s not going to be much of the ruin left standing after so long.”

  “Aren’t you curious about the building? It is part of your family’s past.”

  “Not when it’s that far back,” he said, getting into the pilot’s seat. “I told you, we don’t have the same preoccupation with the past as the Humans.”

  “It’s not a preoccupation,” she said, sitting beside him. “It gives them a sense of continuity, and by studying the past they feel they can better understand themselves.”

  Kusac made a noncommittal noise and waited for Rulla and Zhyaf to get seated before sealing the door and starting up the engine.

  *

  He could feel her thoughts become still as she looked out at the scenery below. It wasn’t far and within ten minutes, they were circling round to land on the top of the hill.

  I want you to take it easy today, Carrie. There’s bound to be a lot of overgrown rubble at the ruins and I don’t want anything happening to you. No falls, please.

  There are times when you are too cautious, she sent. I’ll be as careful as I usually am. You need to loosen up, stop seeing what could go wrong, otherwise life will get boringly predictable and pass you by.

  With you around? Not likely! You attract the unpredictable like a magnet! “Look, there’s the ruin below us,” he said, pointing toward the ground. “As I said, there’s not much left. I’ll set down to the rear of it. There’s a sizable clear area there.”

  “There’s more of it standing than I thought there’d be from what you’ve been saying,” Carrie said, peering below as Kusac brought the craft down to land. As soon as he’d cut the motors and unsealed the door, she scrambled out.

  “Don’t go off on your own!” Kusac shouted after her. “I told you, the ruins are probably unstable and dangerous!”

  “Then hurry up,” she said, stopping and turning back to look at him through the doorway. Her brown eyes, the vertical pupil an amber-edged slit in the bright light, regarded him with humor. “And stop fretting over me, I’ll take care.” With that, she was off.

  Kusac gave a small growl of annoyance as he scrambled out after her. “Keissians,” he muttered.

  “Carrie strikes me as being more of a Sholan without fur than a Keissian, particularly when you see her eyes,” said Meral as he followed him out. “She’s very like Taizia.”

  “Worse,” said Kusac. “I wonder how much of that is due to my sister’s influence.”

  “Almost none from what Taizia says.”

  “I feared as much,” he sighed as they headed after Carrie. Kaid and Rulla ambled behind them with Zhyaf and Mara.

  “Would either of us want a female from the Clan estates?” asked Meral, turning an amused look on Kusac. “One who only thought of duty and position and looking attractive?”

  Kusac returned the grin. “Gods, no!” he said. “Think of Rala Vailkoi! Actually, I’m surprised you and Taizia are still together. Her relationships don’t usually last this long.” When Meral didn’t answer immediately, Kusac stopped and looked at him. “You are still together, aren’t you?”

  “We have a fondness for each other,” Meral said evasively.

  “And Taizia being named as the mother of the Clan’s heirs after me has upset your plans,” he said quietly. “You now have the problem Carrie and I had up until three months ago. I’m sorry,” he said, starting to walk on again.

  They joined Carrie by the outer wall of the ruin, and waited there for the others to catch up with them.

  Meral’s ears flicked back, then righted themselves. “Liegen, I’ve something I must tell you. Taizia and I, we took your example and went to the temple. Ghyan witnessed the signing of our five-year contract,” he said, the words coming out in a rush.

  Kusac looked at him, his mouth dropping open with sheer surprise. He found himself unable to say anything as the young warrior before him braced himself for what he felt was the inevitable explosion of anger.

  As his surface thoughts came to her, Carrie began to laugh gently. “She’s pregnant! So that’s why she’s hiding with your family on the Nazule estate! I wish you both happiness, Meral.”

  Kusac closed his eyes, a pained look on his face. “Just wait till I get my hands on her! That cunning, conniving little she-jegget! How could she choose to compromise you both …”

  “No,” interrupted Meral. “The decision to sign a contract was mine, and I insisted on a five-year one. There’s nothing you can say to her that I haven’t already said, and more.”

  Kusac closed his mouth as Carrie nudged him mentally.

  Leave it to him, Kusac. He needs to accept the responsibility for this. You’re touching his sense of honor now.

  I know, but they shouldn’t have done this!

  They’ve done no more nor less than we did. Found a way to take the happiness they want, came the gentle reminder. Have we the right to be moralistic with them and begrudge them their happiness?

  I don’t, Carrie, the God knows that. I love my sister dearly.

  So tell him that!

  Kusac refocused on Meral. “Stop looking so worried,” he said, mouth widening and opening in a grin. “A five-year contract with my sister is enough punishment to wish on any male, as I think my parents will agree when you tell them. You do realize she’ll still have to provide the Clan with heirs?”

  “Yes, but she’ll be mine for those five years,” Meral said, relaxing now as he realized that the anger he had expected wasn’t coming.

  “Bring Taizia over to stay at the villa if you wish,” said Kusac. “You shouldn’t have to be apart at this time.”

  “She’d love to come,” said Meral, face breaking into a wide grin. “But wouldn’t her condition upset…”

  “No,” smiled Carrie, reaching out to touch his arm. “It won’t bother me. By the end of spring, our cub will be born. I would love some female company, especially Taizia’s, in our house full of men. I’m glad Kusac suggested it.”

  She looked over her shoulder and called out to Kaid, who, having a fair idea of what they were discussing, had kept himself and the others a short distance away.

  “Kaid, you and Rulla can help us explore while Kusac and Meral indulge themselves in your species’ peculiar passion for genealogies.”

  Kaid came walking over to them. “Meral’s spoken to you? His family is the Nazule Clan, Liegen,” he said. “He’s the second son, and a fitting mate for Liegena Taizia.”

  Kusac nodded. “I know, Kaid. Meral told us about his family when we were still on the Khalossa.”

  He turned to Meral. “I know your qualities as a person, and I know you’re good for each other, Mer
al. That matters more than anything else.”

  Carrie looked from Kusac to Meral, seeing the latter’s tail tip swaying with pleasure at the praise he’d just received. She reached for Kaid’s hand and tugged at him. “Come on, Kaid. These two need to talk,” she said, towing him round the low wall toward the center of the ruin.

  “Over here,” she called to Mara. “This is where your treasure hunt starts, Mara, though I doubt we’ll find any treasure here! Zhyaf, are you coming?”

  “I think I’d prefer to sit in the shade, thank you, Liegena,” he said, ambling over to one of the trees that offered a broad trunk for him to lean against.

  Within ten minutes Carrie was calling Kusac over to where she and the others stood in front of a large mound of rubble. At the base lay the weathered remains of a clawed foot.

  “This was obviously part of a statue, Kusac,” she said. “I get the feeling it was a religious one.” She scuffled in the loose rubble with the toe of her boot, then bent down to pick something up. “What’s this?” she asked, rubbing it against her trouser leg before holding it out to him.

  Kusac took the stone from her, turning it over in his hand. “It’s a piece of worked crystal. It’s common all over this area. Must have been set in the statue somewhere,” he said, handing it back to her.

  “It’s shaped like an egg,” she said, holding it up to the sun and squinting through it. “What would they use a piece of clear crystal for? Could it have been an eye? How do your sculptors portray eyes in statues today?”

  Kusac shrugged.

  “Can I see it, Liegena? The civic statues are usually all carved from the same stone,” said Kaid. “However, the ones at the Warrior Guild and the Brotherhood are a good few hundred years old and they have crystal eyes.”

  Carrie handed it to him and watched as he turned it over in his hand.

  “It’s not clear, Liegena, it’s a blue white,” he said, handing it back to her.

  She had to grab for it as he almost dropped it in his haste to return it to her. Puzzled, she glanced at him but he was already turning away.

  “You say these crystals are common here?” she asked Kusac.

  “Yes. We’ve got several worked pieces in the house. Ancient heirlooms Mother calls them. There’s an old story that says a hermit priest lived up here. Apparently he survived by carving crystal animals and flowers which he exchanged on the estate for food for himself and the wild creatures that lived up here,” said Kusac. “There were seams of the same crystal in the cave lower down where we stayed, Carrie. Remember?”

  She nodded, putting the piece in her trouser pocket. “I remember. I wonder what else is buried under that pile of rubble,” she said, looking at it wistfully.

  “Can I see it?” asked Mara.

  “Later,” said Carrie. “When we stop for second meal. I want to do some digging here.”

  “That’s not a job for us, Carrie,” said Kusac. “That’ll take several people a day or more to uncover, and I don’t know that it’s worth the effort.”

  “Mmm,” she said, drifting off toward a gap in the broken wall beside them. “You could be right. Let’s see what else there is here. The story and the presence of the statue certainly substantiates that this was a religious site at some time. If we could find some more of it, we could probably tell if it was a statue of Vartra. I wonder how old all this is.”

  Kusac accompanied her while she wandered around the rest of the ruins. It covered quite a large area and from the distribution of the pieces of wall sticking up like jagged teeth from the ground, they could tell that it had been quite a complex building.

  He could sense Carrie probing at the ground with her mind. Some of what she was picking up he could feel, but it was so subtle, so much a matter of her judgment that he was more aware of her conclusions than how she had reached them.

  “I’m sensing a lot of crystal,” she said at length. “It’s identical to the one we found. Also large amounts of metal.” She frowned, perplexed by the conflicting images.

  “Probably a crystal mine under here,” suggested Meral.

  “Could be,” she said. “Do you have a scanning device that would show up any tunnels or caverns?”

  “We can get one,” said Kusac. “Do you really think it’s that important?”

  “Yes,” she said unequivocally, looking up at him. “I also want that statue uncovered. I need to know if it is Vartra. I was getting the sensation of peace and tranquillity from that area of the ruins, but not from here. If this was a monastery or a shrine, then I should be getting the same feelings here, unless the whole building had been destroyed as a result of violence. The violence would then be an overlay on the general feeling of peacefulness. Only what I’m getting here is much more mundane.”

  She hesitated, unable to find the words to fully explain what she was feeling. “There’s a sense of aggression here that wouldn’t fit with the purpose of the building if it was a monastery. It feels like the Warrior Guild—you know, controlled aggression. Couple that with large amounts of metal buried quite deeply underground and you have a puzzle that begs for an answer.”

  Kusac sat down on a pile of rubble. “On Keiss we were able to find the pod using our combined talents so I know it’s possible to sense large amounts of metal, but feelings from the past?”

  “That dream I had while I was at Noni’s with Kaid,” she said. “Noni said it was the rocks and stones keeping memories and replaying them in our minds while we slept. You have crystals that store electronic data, don’t you? How about a crystal that stores people’s memories? It would explain why my dreams in the cave were so vivid. It would also explain why people at the Valsgarth Telepath Guild have dreams only when they stay there.”

  “What about those we have at Stronghold?” asked Rulla. “Many of us have even seen the God walking down the corridors there!”

  “Perhaps there are crystal deposits in the Dzahai Mountains, too,” said Carrie.

  “Lijou keeps an ornament of blue crystal on his desk,” said Rulla thoughtfully.

  “Can we find out if there are deposits near Stronghold?” asked Kusac.

  “The miners would have records in the Guild of Manufacturers’ archives,” said Kaid. “The Guild of Artificers might know about it too since the crystal can be carved.”

  “That definitely should be followed up,” said Kusac.

  “I’ll do it,” offered Kaid.

  “I knew this place was important from the first time I saw it,” said Carrie as she began to wander away from them again. “It’s really strange, Kusac. As if it’s calling to me. I’m feeling it even more strongly now.”

  “Then I suppose we’d better do some excavating today,” he said. “I don’t suppose you have any idea why it’s important, do you?”

  “None, but I was right about the crystals.”

  “We haven’t proved they hold memories yet,” said Kusac warningly. “We’ll have to find a way to experiment with them.”

  “They hold memories,” said Kaid quietly.

  Carried looked over to him. “How d’you know?” she asked.

  “The crystal Noni used to heal you,” he said reluctantly. “It retained a feel of you.”

  “She used a crystal? Then Noni should be able to help us find out more about the piece I’ve found. Perhaps we can go and show it to her.”

  “We could ask,” said Kaid.

  “Where do you want to start digging?” asked Kusac.

  “Well, since we can’t do anything about what’s below ground without a sensor, how about we start on the mound where I found the foot? If it is a statue of Vartra, then we’ve got a good idea that it’s worth looking further.”

  Kusac sighed and stood up. “Let’s get started then.”

  *

  Midday came and they broke for their meal, spreading the rugs outside in the partial shade of the aircar and the nearby tree. Afterward to Carrie’s and Mara’s annoyance, the food coupled with the heat and the Sholan’s natural te
ndency to rest during the hottest part of the day, found them surrounded by fairly soporific males.

  “I’d like to get back to excavating the statue,” Carrie said, looking pointedly round at each of them in turn.

  “There’s no rush, Carrie, we’ve just eaten,” said Kusac from where he lay sprawled beside her. “Why don’t you rest, too? It would do you good.” His tone was persuasive.

  Carrie could feel his waves of drowsiness spreading through her. Firmly she pushed them back. “I don’t want to rest, thanks,” she said, moving to get up.

  Kusac’s arms were wrapped round her waist before she could move any further and she found herself gently but firmly pulled down beside him.

  “You should rest, cub,” he said as he tucked her body against his. “You need all your strength.” His nose was cool against her cheek.

  “I don’t want to rest. Now we’ve unearthed most of the torso, I want to see what else is under the rubble,” she replied, trying to break free as his tongue began to lick at the edges of her ear. Kusac, that’s unfair. Once again the waves of lassitude from him began to wash over her.

  En’Shalla, Carrie. His mental tone was almost a caress as his hand moved to the back of her head, turning her face to his as he began to kiss her. We’re in the hands of the Gods. Don’t fight it this time.

  The Terran portion of her mind—becoming smaller with every day—balked not only at the too public display of affection, but also at the means he was using to persuade her to rest. Despite that, she felt herself begin to relax, responding to his closeness.

  “Perhaps,” she murmured softly, her fingers toying with the hair that grew on his neck, “the Gods wish us to uncover this statue, and even discover what lies at the heart of this hill. If it weren’t for my Talent, we wouldn’t even be aware there was anything here.”

  She could feel the light touch of his mind as he looked deeper into her thoughts.

  Kusac sighed and released her. “All right,” he said, sitting up. “You do realize that you’ll only have a few weeks to oversee this, don’t you? We can’t afford you taking any physical risks. You really will have to take it easy, Carrie. The last thing either of us wants is you to miscarry.”